The Sharks won't be
seeing as much of the Detroit Red Wings now that their long-time rival has
moved to the Eastern Conference, so the two teams decided to put on a defensive
masterpiece at Joe Louis Arena on Monday night in the Motor City. Both teams
combined for 51 shots, but neither could get a puck past goaltenders Antti
Niemi and Jimmy Howard. San Jose used a Logan Couture shootout goal and an
incredible save by Niemi to take the first half of the abridged series between
the two teams.

* Both teams clamped down on the neutral zone, denying
their opponent from gaining the offensive zones with any speed. The best way to
describe this game is: Chess Match. Neither side wanted to surrender the
initial goal, and both showed what defensive presence means.

* San
Jose had their own chances on the power play, but miss-fired on three
opportunities. The first came just 30 seconds into the game when Pavel Datsyuk
was whistled for interference.

* San Jose out-shot Detroit 27-24, but
the Red Wings took control of the game in the 3rd period, putting half of their
shots on net in that frame. Niemi made his best save of the night on Daniel
Alfredsson in the 2nd period, after the former Ottawa Senator's captain spun on
a puck and fired a shot on net from 12 feet out.

* In the shootout,
Datsyuk missed on a backhand chance, then Patrick Marleau beat Howard with a
nifty move to his left but his shot clanked off the left post. Daniel
Alfredsson tried to wrist a shot past Niemi, but his shot went wide left.
Couture buried his chance, setting up Niemi's incredible save. Detroit's last
hope rested in Todd Bertuzzi's hands, and the burly forward appeared to have
the Sharks goaltender beat, but when he tried lifting the puck into a wide open
net from the left side, Niemi lifted his right leg, denying the shot with his
skate.

* James Sheppard was called for an interference penalty after
Henrik Zetterberg essentially grabbed Sheppard's stick and went for a ride at
center ice for all four officials to see. Dan O'Rourke called Sheppard for the
infraction setting up a huge power play late in the game. The Sharks penalty
killers had a tough time gaining control of the puck, but they sealed off
shooting lanes and denied the Red Wings from capitalizing on a major
opportunity.

* Logan Couture's shootout goal was the 8th of his
career, and his 5th shootout winner. He is 2 for 2 in the shootout in his
career vs Detroit.

* Rookie Freddie Hamilton made his Sharks debut, and
tried to snap the scoreless tie with a sweet reverse spin-o-rama move that
Howard got a piece of. The shot would have most likely gone wide anyway, but it
was pretty ballsy for the kid to try and pull off the move.

* Brent
Burns was scratched from the game after taking a puck to the mouth on Saturday
night. Already missing his front teeth, Burns took a day to let the effects of
the painful injury subside.

* Detroit showed their physical side,
out-hitting the Sharks 28-13. Justin Abdelkader led all skaters with 4 hits.
Tommy Wingels accounted for almost 25% of the Sharks hits with 3.

* In
addition to his game winning shootout goal, Couture led all skaters with 5
shots during the game.

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